Launched at 9am PST Vandenberg Airforce Base

Canada’s newest satellite will hitch a ride aboard the West Coast’s inaugural Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, a mission that comes 51 years after that nation entered the space age with another Central Coast launch.

Blast-off  a success for the Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket, which stands 222 feet tall.

What is the cargo aboard the space booster?

That cargo is the Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer, or CASSIOPE, built by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd (MDA) of Canada.

CASSIOPE’s mission is to prove a new design for a Canadian satellite frame that carries a scientific experiment and a technology demonstration.

Satellite contains magnetometer designed by John Bennest of Summerland BC